


Ticking of a Silent Clock

by Okumen



Category: Fire Emblem Heroes, Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: :I, Angst, Book 3 Chapter 3 spoilers, M/M, i am not tagging Certain Things because they are those spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 13:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17386937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Okumen/pseuds/Okumen
Summary: Somebody had stuck a knife through the clock's pendulum, stopping its time from passing.





	Ticking of a Silent Clock

**Author's Note:**

> This is completely unedited after it was written in one sitting when I was definitely meant to be asleep. But I played Book 3 Chapter 3 and I had to get out at least something, so here we are. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

The hours slips by like too much sand through fingers, impossible to stop or slow.

A large clock had ticked where it stood against a wall, tall and domineering, its sound telling of how the end grew nearer by each step it took.

Somebody had stuck a knife through its pendulum, stopping its time from passing.

He had not removed it when he returned to discover it.

For the moment, the room was silent.

The man who wasn’t entirely Laslow slept in a chair by the door, ready to fetch anything he was told, an offer he had made first to the Askran princess, then to Lady Corrin, then to Jakob.

 

Princess Sharena had sat by her brother’s side, her open face written with pain. Jakob had come with his liege, not because he was concerned for a friend but because Lady Corrin oughtn’t take it upon herself to allow Sharena some rest on her own.

(Felicia claimed Alfonse to be Jakob’s friend since she had discovered the prince showing the butler the kitchens; Flora had claimed Alfonse as Jakob’s friend when hearing them exchange words after returning from a battle; Lady Corrin had looked at him and said that he had found a good friend when Jakob commented on the pot he was currently serving his recently arrived liege tea from.)

Lady Corrin and Jakob and Inigo had witnessed as Princess Sharena had flown up from where she had sat for hours, knees sore from resting against the floor and fingers stiff from holding her brother’s hand in hers, as the Askran king arrived with vitriol on his tongue.

The princess whose brother was dying had turned to Lady Corrin and had been promised that they would look after the prince. The princess had left in a hurry, eyes set toward enemy nation and the desire to save her brother.

Still, no solution had been found, and the missives delivered by Feh held no answers and no relief for any of them, be it those in the field, or those in the base.

 

The prince’s breath was shallow in his sleep, letting Jakob know that at least for the moment, he was not in pain.

A mere half hour ago, Alfonse had been wrecked by fevers so agonizing that he had nearly fallen from his bed. Only Jakob’s hand against his shoulder had hindered him from toppling the edge. Jakob had looped his arms underneath the prince and had moved him back to the middle of the bed, had propped up a wall of pillows on the one side, and had positioned himself on the other.

The prince’s face pressed into inexcusable creases in Jakob’s uniform, his pale face ashen and flushed and both scorching hot and biting cold all at once.

The hair between Jakob’s fingers was damp with cold sweat.

(Lady Corrin had also, at a time, looked at Jakob and Alfonse interacting and had to Jakob said that she approved.

She didn’t explain further, and Jakob grew no wiser when he spoke to Felicia about it.

The impossible maid had smiled and giggled and only said that she agreed.)

Time was running out.

If the princess and her team of Heroes were unable to find anything and return by the coming morning, it would be too late.

Jakob carded his fingers through the prince’s short hair, something he had discovered seemed to at least distract or alleviate where none of the healers cursing their inability seemed to be able to.

Jakob did not understand it, but it only made the ache in his own chest intensify.

(Lady Corrin had looked at him when he made her leave the room in favor of facing a few hours in her bed, and though it was visible how tired she was, the sympathetic agony turned toward him had made his hand clench on the door handle as he pulled the door closed.)

A shudder ran through prince Alfonse, and Jakob’s gaze returned into focus from where it had been staring through the array of books on their shelves as he grasped for any word to suitably describe how he was feeling.

The words were a whisper past dry lips and a sand-tight throat, and Jakob helped Alfonse sit up, pressed a glass to his lips to allow him to drink, and watched the prince with careful eyes as he rested with heavy breath against the pillows Jakob had propped him up with.

Each movement seemed an agony, but Alfonse seemed unable to preserve his energy.

He grasped Jakob’s hand with his, though the best of his capabilities were sorely lacking. Not knowing how it would help, Jakob moved his hand to more properly grasp Alfonse’s.

Short, sharp breaths rang loud in his ears.

He could hear the ticking of the clock despite the blade breaking the pendulum’s movements.

 _Soon-_ the prince managed, one word of a sentence, of a question, that didn’t need to be finished. The sky outside the window was not as dark as it once was.

Jakob’s lips pressed together and he said nothing in return.

Alfonse closed his eyes. Opened them again.

The prince nearly tipped over from the strain of straightening up, and Jakob’s hand clasped his shoulder to support him. The iron grip on Jakob’s hand and on the blanket betrayed another bout of pain before the agony passed the prince’s lips.

Inigo startled awake with the sudden sound; Jakob told the boy to send for any nearby healers. They could at least try to keep what seemed inevitable at bay for at least a little longer- Though Jakob’s own spells had no effect to quell the way Alfonse’s body shook.

Alfonse’s forehead pressed deep into Jakob’s shoulder, and the jerking movements made it difficult for Jakob’s body to remain still.

A while into the pain Alfonse seemed to lose what sound was left in his vocal cords.

By that point Jakob heard the sound of footsteps, and found Genny and Libra at the side of the bed, working as best they could.

The prince’s body could not be straightened out to put him properly back into bed. His back was curved and his fingers stiff, his ragged breath hitting the disarray that had become of Jakob’s collar.

The tears of excruciating pain and abject fear dampened both Alfonse’s skin and Jakob’s clothes.

Alfonse stilled as the morning sun started to crawl over the edge of the horizon. His chest moved weakly, and he could be pulled into his mother’s embrace.

The light spread a glow across the unhealthy pallor of Alfonse’s face.

He attracted Jakob’s attention with his gaze on him, heavy lids and long lashes only barely showing milked-out blue irises, and lips moving mere fractions with no sound passing them.

With a glance toward the queen, Jakob had received permission to lean closer, and he and frozen when he felt lips press weakly to his skin, just near his ear.

Jakob gazed at the prince and, moments of hesitations later, pressed lips to lips and felt the slightest of smile twitch against his own serious expression for a short moment.

When he straightened back up he felt multiple gazes upon him and despite the discomfort it created, he slipped his hand into the prince’s, held it without wavering,

 

Some time later, unknown to him because in the end, he didn’t want to know, at least not yet, he slipped his hand away from stiff fingers, and he went to his lieges side by the door.

She pulled him aside, drew him into her room and there, everything finally stopped and continued to move at once.

 

(Lady Corrin would hold him as he understood, and he stared blankly, with dry eyes of sorrow, into the crooked pendant on her chest, until he pushed himself to his feet and forced himself to return to work.

It was the only way that he knew how to deal with loss.

For a man he had only, too late, realized his feelings for, he could do nothing but keep on moving his body, until his mind was finally capable of catching up.)

**Author's Note:**

> Next time I write FE I want to write something dumb that doesn't hurt. :|


End file.
